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On Monday, we talked about a few commodities bouncing off their recent lows -- and while it's too early to call for new uptrends, the Commitment of Traders (COT) data shows that smart money commercial hedgers are looking for higher prices. WTI has held chart support again in the $66-$67/barrel area. That price has been hit many times going back to early 2023, so it has become a key support region. WTI has popped almost 5% this week and is sitting just around $70. Energy sector stocks (XLE) have rallied over 10% since November 1 and Energy is the top-performing S&P 500 sector over that 14-day period. Some of the XLE resurgence is due to the strength in natural-gas futures, as many energy companies have both crude oil and natural-gas operations. Gas has risen from a low of $2.66 on November 1 to an intraday high of $3.45 on Thursday, an increase of 30%. On Wednesday and Thursday, natural gas spiked 12% and is at its highest level since early this year. Since the latter part of October, the COT data has been quite bullish for natural gas. If gas can break above $3.64, or the high of the almost two-year base, we could see an explosion to the upside. Gas has a tendency to spikes higher every three to five years, but these spikes usually don't last very long and the commodity then comes crashing down. This makes the daily chart look like a very narrow Christmas tree. Forget about charts breaking out to all-time highs in this case. If you want to trade the U.S. Natural Gas Fund (UNG), history suggests that you buy when gas is getting smacked and is oversold and sell the bounces. (Mark Arbeter, CMT)

Headquartered in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey, BD manufactures and sells a broad range of medical supplies, devices, laboratory equipment, and diagnostic products. Its operations consist of three worldwide business segments: BD Medical, BD Life Sciences, and BD Interventional.

Elanco Animal Health, based in Greenfield, Indiana, provides products for both companion and food animals. It became the second-largest animal health company in the world following its acquisition of Bayer's animal health business. Founded in 1954 as part of Eli Lilly, it was spun off from Lilly through an IPO on September 24, 2018. Elanco sells its products in more than 90 countries and has a market capitalization of approximately $6.6 billion. The company has approximately 9,300 full-time employees.

U.S stocks closed higher on Thursday. The S&P 500 rose 0.5%, the Dow gained 1.1% and the Nasdaq closed just above the flat line. The Communication sector was the biggest decliner and Utilities led the market higher.